AS he prepares to write a new chapter in his illustrious career, Billy Walker would probably settle for matching the narrative arc of his previous venture.

The Scotch whisky veteran revealed his plans this week to launch single malts from Speyside’s GlenAllachie Distillery in markets around the world by next spring. His recent acquisition of GlenAllachie, alongside fellow seasoned whisky campaigners Trisha Savage and Graham Stevenson, marked his comeback to the industry following the sale of his BenRiach Distillery Company in a bumper £285 million deal last year. That exit came 12 years after the chemistry graduate, in tandem with South African-based business partners, had started the company with the £5m purchase of the BenRiach Distillery in Speyside in 2002.

By the time of its sale to Brown-Forman, the US spirits giant behind Jack Daniel’s, Newbridge-based BenRiach was turning over £40m, had 165 employees and was selling whisky into around 25 global markets. It also had two other distilleries in the stable. Having recommenced production at the previously mothballed BenRiach in 2004, it went on to acquire GlenDronach Distillery in the Highlands in 2008, and then Glenglassaugh of Speyside in 2013.

Mr Walker, who over four decades in the industry has worked for such major whisky names as Ballantine’s, Inver House and Burn Stewart, recalled that his time at BenRiach fulfilled “everything we ever expected and more”.

“Was it a surprising journey? There were lots of surprises along the way, but life wouldn’t be very interesting if there weren’t,” he said. “Some of them were very good surprises, others less good.

“The journey we had between 2004 and 2016 was amazing. Serendipity was unquestionably on our side during that period.”

Now 72, Mr Walker could have been forgiven for seeking a quieter life after exiting BenRiach, rather than diving headlong back into the industry. But, with whisky fundamentally his “passion and his hobby”, it was perhaps inevitable that he would return to the fold.

Indeed, it was little more than a year after the BenRiach deal that he formed a consortium to acquire the little-known GlenAllachie from Pernod Ricard in July.

With the industry running hard to keep up with growing global demand for premium quality Scotch, opportunities to acquire distilleries are thin on the ground. And those which are in as good condition as the 50 year old GlenAllachie, which came alongside a “very sumptuous inventory” of mature stock, are even rarer. Mr Walker acknowledged that this week, noting the undisclosed price paid for the distillery reflected its assets.

So rich is the stock GlenAllachie has at his fingertips that, by March of next year, Mr Walker is confident of launching 12, 18 and 25 year old expressions of its eponymous single malt on to the market simultaneously.

Much like he did at BenRiach, a key plank of the strategy will be to build a brand from a distillery hitherto unknown for the malt it produces, establishing routes to market through like-minded independent importers and distributors.

But Mr Walker, the majority shareholder, acknowledged that he and his fellow investors must be open to what the “ever-changing” global whisky industry has to offer.

As such, emerging markets will be on the radar as well as mature destinations such as the US, France and Germany.

“The truth is, we are kind of good at what we do,” said Mr Walker, who entered the industry in a production role with Ballantine’s in Dumbarton in 1974.

“I don’t see us changing our business model too much. But you know, the world is changing and there are markets out there which are very interesting which frankly didn’t exist 10, 15 years ago.

“There is an ever-changing horizon out there which presents newer and different opportunities. We need to be alive to them.”

And, having been no stranger to acquisitions while running BenRiach, he refused to rule out adding other distilleries to the GlenAllachie stable, or to installing a bottling line on site.

No deals are imminent but Mr Walker insisted: “Of course we would look at any opportunity that came along. Is it likely? Is there anything on the horizon that we see? No, we don’t see anything on the horizon but do you know what, who knows?

“The world is constantly rotating. If we had this conversation a year ago we would have said it was going to be very difficult to buy a distillery. Things change.”

Intriguingly, despite having spent his career steeped in the Scotch industry, Mr Walker is open to a move into the bustling gin market.

“I wouldn’t rule out gin,” he said. “We’re in the position where we can take mature aged whisky to market quite quickly, so we don’t need to have a gin that would generate quick fix cash. That’s not to say we won’t do it. But if we do it will be a considered decision and it won’t happen immediately, that’s for sure.”

Having spent so much of their careers at corporate whisky companies, Mr Walker said he and his fellow directors are relishing the chance to “create and be part of a 100 per cent privately-owned, independent, Scottish-owned Scotch whisky company” at GlenAllachie. “It’s a new journey for all of us,” he said.

That journey will, of course, include steering the new venture through the Brexit process. Mr Walker, a Master of the Quaich, is sanguine about whisky’s capacity to deal with the change, believing the “industry is in a very good place”.

“You’d prefer if there were no things on the horizon that are going to present obstacles,” he said. “Brexit will be what it will be, the industry will react and it will react positively to it. It will just create one or two challenges I’m sure.

“But while Europe is an important market, Asia is an important market, so is the United States. Brexit is just an issue at the moment – we will get over that for sure.”